Monday News Mash-Up

Poet, musician, and all-around badass Leonard Cohen has scheduled his first United States performance in over 15 years for February 19th in world mecca, New York City. What to expect from the brazen kinkster is anyone’s guess but if he isn’t throwing back a few highballs and romancing 17 year old girls, than we suppose his Beacon Theatre performance will just be about his music — still a wonderful trade-off.

Not quite as boozy, Jonny Greenwood is up to his solo tricks once more. Not satisfied with scoring films, operas, and plays, the Radiohead guitarist appears on Israeli-based singer Dudu Tasa’s latest single, “What a Day.” For the morbidly curious, Pitchfork happens to have procured an Internet Explorer-only stream for you to enjoy here.

SNL’s Jorma Taccone got a sneak peek at Fleet Foxes‘s routine during their rehearsal for a live set on the scetch show this past Saturday — much to Bill Hader’s disapproval, as usual — and even added a few licks of his own:

Those of you stuck in the MTV dark ages may only be familiar with artist/musician Laurie Anderson due to the 8-minute performance video ”O Superman”. The masterminds behind Brooklyn-based BAM Next Stage hope to change that narrow perception by hosting Anderson and friends January 21st. The event, curated by Anderson, will deliver the goods with promised appearances from the likes of Brightblack Morning Light, Nona Hendyrx, Arturo O’Farrill, and David Byrne’s new favorite collaborators, Dirty Projectors.

What happens when you pair former Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins with the reggae outfit Sly & Robbie? A convoluted joke set-up that ends with a tribute to Scottish poet Robert Burns. Skipping the complicated and ridiculous, let’s get to the awesome: The newly minted trio will be performing dub versions of Orange Juice classics January 25th in Glasgow.

At sometime in our lives, many of us have had to battle the beast known as Clear Channel. Now comes word that Clear Channel will begin to fight itself. New ownership have the goal of cutting the budget by $400 Million, which means the radio behemoth is looking to slash its workforce in the midst of an economic crisis. According to The Daily Swarm, layoffs — expected to topple the 30,000 mark — may begin as early as this week. While we may wish Clear Channel would stop hogging the radio, it’s hard to watch the toll the economy and changing state of the music industry is taking on innocent employees…

…which segues into more depressing news for terrestrial radio fans. Los Angeles-based Indie 103.1 was shut down this week to make way for a new Spanish-language format. The good news is that the station will live on in some shape and form online.

Over the past year, Kindercore band Ruby Isle has been creating party jam covers of the top ranked songs on elbo.ws. Now on version 2.2, they’ve just covered Bon Iver‘s “Skinny Love.” Watch the video…